Managing Interdisciplinary Research Clusters

The complexity and dynamicity of interdisciplinary research clusters requires an efficient management in order to ensure a good performance. Therefore, this paper presents an iterative regulatory process for managing interdisciplinary research clusters which has been implemented at the two clusters of excellence at RWTH Aachen University. Thereby, an annual evaluation of the cluster performance through a cluster-specific employee survey forms the basis for the derivation and implementation of different measures. By evaluating the performance again, the loop of organizational learning starts anew. As one example of these measures, the colloquia of employees are described in further details because the adaptation and optimization of concepts illustrate the effects of the continuous improvement. Furthermore, the general performance development of the cluster was analyzed to show the comprehensive effects of the regulatory process.